Savile Row Bespoke Association member Richard James Bespoke has returned to its Clifford Street premises, which have been impressively reimagined and redesigned as Richard James House.

The Grade II listed Georgian townhouse at 19 Clifford Street (directly opposite Richard James' other London store at 29 Savile Row) now boasts - over 2,500 sq ft and three floors - a sumptuous first-floor lounge and cocktail bar, an events space, a cloth library, private fitting rooms, and a fully equipped bespoke tailoring workshop and cutting area.

“We started in 1992 with what was the smallest store on the street, so we have grown,” says Richard James’ co-founder and Managing Director Sean Dixon. “A lot of our customers have been with us since we opened that first store and many of them have gradually moved from ready-to-wear tailoring to bespoke, so there is a certain symmetry to the way we are set up here, with a focus on bespoke tailoring on the first floor, which is where the bar is too.”

“There’s a lot of rich colour throughout, and that is testimony to Richard himself, who I co-founded the business with in 1992,” Dixon continues. “We really wouldn't be where we are now without him. He retired a few years ago, but he remains with us in spirit and style as well as name. We remain the only Savile Row tailor to have won the British Fashion Council’s Designer of the Year award, and that is very much down to Richard’s bold use of colour and the progressive, fashion-forward approach that he applied to tailoring.”

Award-winning interior designer David Thomas led on the project, but it was very much a collaborative effort. “I knew Richard James was known for colour, and is a bit different from the rest of the Row,” says Thomas. “But I always do my research first. Sean (Dixon) gave me a copy of the Richard James book, and one of the first things I did was to go through the fabric archive with Toby (Lamb, the Design & Brand Director). The idea for the astrologer wallpaper (in the first-floor fitting room) came from watching a bespoke evening jacket being embellished with Swarovski crystals.”

Richard James House, 19 Clifford Street, London W1S 3RH. Monday to Saturday, 10am to 6pm.